Forever Silenced.

Though I have not posted an entry on this site in quite some time, I do still think about my job at the funeral home from time to time.  It was a side job for me.  Not a career, but a temporary job that payed the bills.  Of course, it became so much more than that since I did enjoy the work and found each day to be an intriguing adventure.  I have respect for those in the funeral business, now that I know what they do.  Well…I have respect for most of the people in the funeral business.  Some of the folks I worked with were not the creates people I had ever met, and some were.  I guess as with all jobs, you have to take the good with the bad.

One of the most profound feelings I had during my first week on the job as a removal staff person had to do with what I referred to as “the shell.”  I saw more dead bodies in the first few days of my job than I had ever seen in my entire life.  And each one, unique in their own way, had something in common:  there was no one there.  Silence.  I know that seems cliche and perhaps obvious, but for the first time in my life, I viewed the human body as nothing more than a shell for a human spirit.  Once that spirit was gone, the only thing left was the lifeless body.

I’m not the most gifted writer in the world.  In fact, I seldom spend much time recording my thoughts.  My words are more impulses that are blurted out on a computer keyboard.  But I hope, in some small way, the feelings and ideas I have are communicated and received by you, the reader.

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~ by claytonguiltner on December 10, 2011.